London Mayor Boris Johnson, who opposes expanding Heathrow, called the government’s move a “fudge”.

The commission will report after 2015.

Both the Conservatives and Lib Dems ruled out a third runway at Heathrow in their 2010 general election manifestos and the coalition agreement continued this commitment. However, business leaders and some Tory MPs have argued that increased airport capacity is vital to dragging the UK out of recession

Several leading Conservatives, including Chancellor George Osborne, have hinted at a rethink over a third runway at Heathrow.

The controversy has intensified in recent days after Justine Greening, a fierce opponent of a new runway, was replaced as transport secretary by Patrick McLoughlin on Tuesday.

Critics, including Mr Johnson, have suggested this will prepare the ground for a change of Conservative Party policy.

Sir Howard, a former deputy governor of the Bank of England and director of the London School of Economics, will chair a body which will consider evidence from all sides and make recommendations to the government.

His commission will publish an interim report next year but no decision is expected until after the next election, due in 2015.

‘Hub status’

David Cameron faced a number of queries on aviation policy during Prime Minister’s Questions – the first since the end of the summer recess.

He told MPs that large infrastructure projects were “extremely difficult for individual governments to take and to deliver”.

Mr Cameron added: “What we need to do is build a process that hopefully has cross-party support so we can look carefully at this issue and deliver changes that will address the problems of capacity we will have in future years and address the issue of the hub status in the UK.”…….